A transplanted small town Hoosier's reflections on stuff, including but not limited to politics, my car, gay rights, sports, religion and growing up a small town Hoosier

17 February 2016

Senate shenanigans

Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is on record as saying that the next President of the United States - the one we'll elect in November - should nominate the next Supreme Court Justice to replace Justice Scalia after his sudden death last weekend.

“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”

A couple of things here. First, the job of the President, as explicitly outlined in the US Constitution, is to nominate a Supreme Court justice. The Senate's job, as explicitly outlined in the US Constitution, is to vote on them. (I mention the explicit thing because the deceased Justice Scalia loved nothing more than to say that the US Constitution was a dead document that should be taken at face value and not interpreted for current exigencies.) Senator McConnell made this statement an hour after the justice's death was confirmed - when people like Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Bernie Sanders (D-VT) were offering condolences to the family of the recently departed - which is a dick move, but that's besides the point. The point is that the American people do have a voice now. Senator McConnell might not like it, but we - the American people - voted for the current president. Twice. And he still has over ten months left in office. And another way that Americans - FAR more Americans, as it turns out - have a voice, is by for whom they voted in the last election. And overwhelmingly, more of us - the voice-ful American people - voted for Democratic members of the US Senate than for Republican members of the US Senate. And when I say "overwhelmingly" that's not hyperbole: it's over 24 million more votes. That's about the entire population of Ghana, or Australia, or to put it in terms perhaps more comfortable to the GOP Senate, that's more than the entire populations of: Tennessee, South Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana and Alabama combined. Not voting age populations of those particular traitor states, but their entire total population. That's staggering. 24 million more Americans voted for current Democratic Senators than Republicans. And I can hear some people saying, "Well, that's California and New York, so what do you expect?" Like California and New York don't count, but whatever, okay - delete California and New York vote totals and it's still FOUR MILLION MORE. That's more than Oklahoma! So who the hell are these "American people" that Senator McConnell wants to hear from? And is he sure? I don't know, but Senator, you might want to be careful what you wish for. (Raw data below the jump.)